22 Movies You Must See in May

Forget vacation. You already have plans: getting intergalactic with galaxy guardians and invaders, rolling in the Malibu sands with dudes in red bathing suits, and trudging knee-deep in raunch in South America with Amy Schumer.

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Courtesy Youtube

'Burden'

How far would you go for art? Well, if you’re anything like conceptual artist Chris Burden, your creative expression falls nowhere short of shooting yourself, confining yourself to a locker, or crucifying yourself on the back of a Volkswagen. Hey, it’s art. And his extreme take, as well as its effects, are all laid out in this documentary.

Full disclosure: Herman Koch’s best seller isn’t the Gone Girl companion read it’s been touted to be, and that’s okay. It is its own dish of familial suspense, and Oren Moverman’s film adaptation, starring Laura Linney and Steve Coogan as the protagonist couple, looks to be the multicourse thrill ride we’re craving.

They’re a raucous mélange of heroes whose sublime turn in the first volume has eager fans howling for the return. In what promises to be another classic action mixtape, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and a fuzzy-faced, foulmouthed Bradley Cooper raise the stakes in their quest to save the universe.

If crazy is a subjective term, then this pair is looking for a consensus. An Italian comic caper that finds a wayward pair of misfits named Beatrice and Donatella flying way over the cuckoo’s nest, Paolo Virzi’s road-trip dramedy follows the two through their escape from a Tuscan institution and into a newfound friendship.

A long-married couple, who have cultivated a contentedness with each other’s presence and a comfort in the arms of others, are suddenly love-struck with each other in Azazel Jacobs’ impish take on an overwrought marriage. Debra Winger delights, and Tracy Letts leaves us wanting more.

Laura Poitras, whose Citizenfour made her both a whistleblowing collaborator and an enemy of the state, is back with another high-stakes documentary. Filmed over six years and culminating in the aftermath of a controversial election year, Risk tells the story of WikiLeaks’s editor-in-chief, Julian Assange.

Susan Sarandon plays a lesbian matriarch, her daughter (Naomi Watts) a single mother, and her child (Elle Fanning) a teen who identifies as a boy in Three Generations, a film which illustrates society's evolving perception of gender through the perspective of three generations—with unconditional love remaining a constant throughout.

Based on Guy de Maupassant’s 1883 novel, A Woman’s Life is a haunting film set in 19th-century France. It follows a doomed heroine and the tangled string of misfortune that consumes her existence, and has everything you want in a period drama: costumes, scandal, and, of course, a profound score.

People will pay to escape the mundanity of everyday life, and Ray Moody (Pat Healy) will gladly take them and their money. A comedy of errors also directed by Healy, this faux-crime caper unfolds after Moody kidnaps a not-so-happy customer (Taylor Schilling).

The first feature for director Derek Hui is a Chinese meet-cute featuring the seemingly bizarre pairing of a billionaire CEO and nutty yet colorful sous-chef. A whimsical and amusing romantic feast for the funny bone, it could be described as a mix of Simply Irresistible and Amelie, but like its title suggests, it’s entirely not what you would expect.

A likeable buddy comedy about a failing comic and an acclaimed musician who join forces on the road is just the kind of amiable watch we need right now. Alex Karpovsky and Wyatt Russell star, and though the two have undeniable on-screen chemistry and range, it’s the folk-rock tunes that hit all the right notes.

A couple (Stephen Curry and Emma Booth) brutalizes schoolgirls Down Under in this debut from director Ben Young—and it has that South by Southwest pulpy stench spattered all over it (yes, that's a good thing). A character study that teeters between relationship drama and Haneke horror, this one is highbrow fare that's anything but child’s play.

Diane Lane hits the road with a flirty Frenchman in the narrative debut from Eleanor Coppola—yes, that Eleanor. A seven-hour drive turns into a scenic two-day travelogue from the Côte d’Azur to Paris, and the 92-minute film is loosely based on an actual jaunt taken by the film’s helmer and should be—in a phrase—a feast for the senses.

Ready the abdominal muscles for another Amy Schumer laugh riot, with a slight word of caution: though Jonathan Levine’s Snatched is technically a mother-daughter affair releasing just in time for Mother’s Day, be ready to wade knee-deep in raunch and whale semen.

Unless you’ve been hiding between a red rock and hard place, you know Ridley Scott is unleashing another interstellar scream fest on us. This time, the horrors follow the cosmonauts aboard the Covenant as they chart uncharted territory and, well, you get the gist.

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, who's no stranger to tapping into the emotional well with The Hunt and The Celebration, brings out all the feels again with The Commune, an easy watch that follows a married couple and their daughter as they start a commune out of their Copenhagen villa, then find that more than three is definitely a crowd.

Stella Meghie brings Nicola Yoon’s debut YA novel about a caged bird and the handsome neighbor who sets her free to the screen with all of the angst and emotion we squirmed through page after page. With praise from the story’s author coupled with a track from Naughty Boy, featuring Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin, this one’s on its way to a spirited win.

Amber Tamblyn takes her career for a dark and beautiful turn with Paint It Black, her directorial feature debut. Starring Alia Shawkat as the grieving love interest of a guy named Michael, Tamblyn’s thriller exposes the cruel interdependence of surviving love in a life now seemingly bereft of light and consequence.

Known for acclaimed screenplays Memoirs of a Geisha and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, writer/director Robin Swicord delivers a one-man meditative thriller shouldered by a brilliant Bryan Cranston. As Howard Wakefield, a checked-out middle-aged man, he holes up in his attic to self-destruct while spying on the life he’s left behind. Strange? Indeed. Worth it? We’d say so.

Teresa Palmer is in the midst of a thespian awakening. Starring in Aussie horror success Lights Out, opposite Andrew Garfield in Oscar-nominated Hacksaw Ridge, and now in a lauded Sundance Stockholm thriller about a first date gone horribly wrong, this girl can do no wrong.

Don’t polish off the rum just yet—there’s yet another installment of the Pirates saga pulling into port. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return, joining Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, who this time is on a quest to find the trident of Poseidon.

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